New tourist record as May arrivals up 7.6%

Tourist arrivals in May set a new record for the month, rising an annual 7.6% to total 450,495 compared to 418,732 in the same month the previous year, despite a 7.9% drop in the Russian market.

For the first five months of the year, tourist arrivals soared by 14.5% to total 1.134.076 from 990,756 in the corresponding period in 2017. This too is a record high.

Arrivals from the UK, Cyprus’ biggest market, rose an annual 3.8% in May, while tourism from Germany was up 2.9%. Other significant markets such as Greece (up 13.2%) and Poland (up 90.6%) also recorded an increase.

In contrast, Russia — Cyprus’ second market — dropped 7.9% in May. Arrivals from Sweden were down 0.2% and from Israel 3.7%.

The UK accounted for 35.7% of total tourist arrivals in May, followed by Russia with 22.1%, Germany with 4.8%, Sweden with 4.5% and Israel with 4.4%.

According to the survey, as regards the purpose of their journey 85.7% said they were on holiday, 8.1% visiting friends and 6.1% were here for professional reasons.